No prison for widow of tragic gym boss

Simone Rossi pictured at Express Gym in 2005. He died of a heart attack on June 8.

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The widow of Express Gym owner Simone Rossi has been given a conditional discharge for her part in a raft of fraud offences.

Children’s book illustrator Anne Wilson, 34, was declared bankrupt in April and left with £65,000 of personal debt and a £135,000 debt from Express Gym, some of which she is named as the personal guarantor.

The married couple, of Chester Street in West Reading, were facing 21 counts between them of dishonestly taking money and were due to stand trial earlier this month. However Mr Rossi died on June 8 following a massive heart attack.

Company director Wilson admitted two charges at Reading Crown Court on Thursday last week of engaging in an activity requiring a licence when not a licensee, namely that Express Gym referred customers to a credit company when signing up for membership without holding a relevant licence.

The further four charges she faced – of giving misleading price indication – were dismissed after no evidence was offered and the court heard how she played a minor role in the gym’s running.

The mum of two young children was told she would not have to pay any costs for the case, which cost Reading Borough Council £11,000, due to the financial crisis she was already facing.

At the hearing, Matthew Pascal, prosecutor for the council’s trading standards department, explained how Wilson had been negligent in allowing the company to recommend a credit company to customers to pay their monthly membership without having a licence to do so. However he also accepted it was her husband who had handled the day-to-day running of the gym and who faced the most serious charges of fraud and dishonesty on the indictment.

He said: “Had the company taken some proper and simple legal advice early on this all could have been avoided.

“It also could have been Mr Rossi’s bull-headed approach to anything he perceived as criticism that led the situation to escalate to this.”

Wilson was given a 12-month conditional discharge for the offences and the remaining charges against her were given formal acquittals.

The charges against her husband and the company were dropped.

- The late Mr Rossi, 45, was also due in Reading Magistrates’ Court on Monday for assault by beating against Luke Martin but the case was adjourned to Monday, August 10.